


I Want It All For You

by IBoatedHere



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Decorating, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 14:37:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7938370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBoatedHere/pseuds/IBoatedHere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes Bitty wants to redecorate Jack’s entire apartment. </p>
<p>He wants this house to be Jack’s home. For it to be a place he looks forward to being at, not just a place to lay his head in between games and practices.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Want It All For You

Sometimes Bitty wants to redecorate Jack’s entire apartment. 

He wants this house to be Jack’s home. For it to be a place he looks forward to being at, not just a place to lay his head in between games and practices. 

He wants to paint the walls bright yellows and soft blues. 

He wants to hang pictures and photos. 

“Maybe some of yours. You have so many to chose from. What about the ones with your geese.” 

“They weren’t my geese.” 

“You loved them and they loved you.” 

“Look, I don’t know how that rumor got started but I’m going to assume it was Shitty and it wasn’t true.” 

“But you did take a lot of pictures of them.” 

Jack wraps his arms around him from behind and kisses the side of his neck. “I took a lot of pictures of you too.” 

Bitty hums and focuses on the dough that’s slowly coming together in the bowl in front of him. 

“So,” Jack says, letting his lips drag, “I guess you have a point.” 

And Bitty’ll never get over that. The way Jack can say things like that so casually but still manage to rock him right to the core. 

He lingers in front of the KitchenAid mixers in Bed Bath & Beyond, standing in front of the deep blue one. The one that matches Jack’s eyes right when he steps off the ice. When he’s laughing at something Shitty has said. When they see each other for the first time in a week and Jack opens the door and pulls him into a hug without even closing the door behind him first. 

“You want this one?”

He jumps at the sound of Jack’s voice. He’s leaning against a cart filled with bath towels all in varying shades of off-white.

Bitty sighs.

Jack leans down to grab the box but Bitty pushes at his shoulder.

“It’s okay, Jack, I don’t need it.”

Jack tips his head and frowns.

“It’s expensive.”

Jack's frown deepens. “I don’t really think that’s a problem for me.”

“I know but….” 

_But it won’t stop there._ He’ll get the mixer and then Jack will catch him eyeing the spatulas and rolling pins and mixing bowls, all of which come in a variety of colors and it’ll be so obvious. The kitchen and the paint and the photos on the walls. He’ll have his teammates come over and they’ll ask if his girlfriend _finally_ decorated or Shitty will stop by and he’ll take one look at that kitchen with the stack of brightly colored pie plates all lined up in a row and he’ll just _know._

“I don’t need it,” he says and Jack stands slowly. He puts his hand on Bitty’s elbow and lets it slowly slide down and for one brief, thrilling moment, Bitty thinks maybe he’ll let their hands meet. But Jack’s hand falls away as soon as his fingertips meet his wrist.

“If you’re sure. But I am buying you this.” From the cart beneath the towels he pulls out a bunny shaped cookie jar. “It’s cute, right?”

Bitty’s heart swells and he covers his mouth with the back of his hand to stop the sound of delight that threatens to spill out.

“It’s adorable,” he says finally and pats Jack on the shoulder. “I’ll make some cookies to fill it when we get back to your place.”

“I like the ones you made last time, with the maple frosting.”

“I know you do, sweetheart.” 

He keeps his hand at the middle of Jack’s back until they turn the corner and see another customer. 

*****

They play phone tag for two weeks.

Jack’s on the road or in practice and Bitty somehow ends up with seven different project all due at the same time. 

He knows how. He can practically hear Jack’s voice in his head saying _you procrastinated_ every time he takes a break to bake something.

It’s hard to Skype with the time differences and he often has a roommate and Tater is great but a bit too perceptive and he’d definitely question the amount of time spent sitting in front of his laptop talking to his old college teammate. 

They have a handful of rushed phone calls and texts between them. 

Some of the calls don’t even end with I love you but Jack always manages to stick a heart emoji at the end of the text.

Finally, Jack’s home and Bitty’s on a train down to see him. 

He meets him at the station. Jack opens the door of his truck for him and Bitty climbs in. He reaches for the seal belt and Jack kisses him instead.

They’re hidden in the back corner of the lot and with the hat Jack has on, dipping low across his forehead, he doubts anyone would recognize him. 

Still. It’s a kiss in public in broad daylight.

“What’s gotten into you?” Bitty asks when Jack pulls away. 

“I missed you. And I have a surprise for you.”

“Oh.” 

He knows this could go one of two ways.

This could be Jack banging on his door freshman year at 4am. 

Or it could be Jack sprinting across campus after graduation and kissing him.

“I think you’re gonna like it.”

“Okay.” 

Bitty tries not to be nervous on the ride to Jack’s apartment. 

Jack has his hand on Bitty’s knee and he’s biting back a smile and Bitty had no idea it was possible to miss someone this much. 

He went 18 years without this boy and now he can’t last two weeks. 

Jack looks over at him at a red light and finally let’s the smile go. 

*****

“Now, don’t get mad at me,” Jack says as he sticks the key into the door. “But I got back yesterday.” He holds up a finger before Bitty can say anything. “I knew you had to finish that last paper and it gave me time to do this.” 

He opens the door and gently pushes Bitty through. 

The walls are all painted. 

A rich blue in the living room. 

A buttery yellow in the kitchen. 

He can see photos hanging in the hallway. They're of the team and sunsets. Bob and Alicia with their arms around Jack as he stands in the middle in his cap and gown on graduation day. Bitty spots a photo of himself and then another and one more. Standing at the kitchen sink at the Haus with a wooden spoon in his hand. With his back to the camera and looking over the ice at Faber. Him and Jack with their faces pressed together and grinning at the camera. Jack had fallen in love with that particular selfie right away and looked so sad when he really couldn't do anything with it. It couldn't be a profile picture on any of his social media accounts even though he barely uses them. _"Someday," he had said and put the camera down. Bitty had leaned over and squeezed his hand._

There are geese. A black and white photo of them flying low over the pond in early morning light. 

There are throw pillows and a patchwork blanket across the back of the couch. It’s made out of t-shirts. Old hockey t-shirts. Soft and worn. 

“That was my baby blanket,” Jack tells him. “I had my mom ship it down.”

“Uh huh,” Bitty says, too stunned to do anything else.

The mixer is on the kitchen counter next to a ceramic crock holding spatulas and whisks of various sizes and shades.

There’s a light blue dishtowel hanging off the door handle on the oven with slice of pie on it. 

“Jack.” He spins around to face him. He still standing by the door and Bitty watches in horror as his warm grin slides off his face. 

“Do you like it? I know you’ve been dying to decorate this place. The way it was, it wasn’t really your style. I just wanted to make you feel more at home.”

Bitty rushes over to him and wraps his arms around his neck. 

“I wanted that for you. I wanted you to love this place. You deserve to have some place cozy and warm and comfortable to come home to. I wanted this to be a home. I wanted you to have something good. Something bright.”

“But I already have you.”

There it is again. There he is breaking his heart in the best way and putting it back together even stronger than before.

He thinks, _this boy. My love. I never want us to be apart._

What he says is _“kiss me,”_ soft and quiet and Jack’s thumb brushes against his cheek before they kiss.


End file.
